But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for you shall go to all that I shall send you, and whatsoever I command you you shall speak.

Then said the LORD unto me, You have well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set everyone his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls round about, and against all the cities of Judah.

And I will utter my judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.

You therefore prepare yourself, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command you: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound you before them.

For, behold, I have made you this day a fenced city, and an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.

Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, says the LORD.

Hear you the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:

Therefore I will yet plead with you, says the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead.

For from of old I have broken your yoke, and burst your bands; and you said, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree you wander, playing the harlot.

A wild donkey used to the wilderness, that sniffs in the wind in her desire; in her mating time who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.

Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst: but you said, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.

Saying to a tree, You are my father; and to a stone, You have brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.

Why will you plead with me? you all have transgressed against me, says the LORD.

O generation, see you the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? why say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto you?

Also on your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but plainly upon all these things.

Yet you say, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with you, because you say, I have not sinned.

Will you not from this time cry unto me, My father, you are the guide of my youth?

Will he reserve his anger forever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done all the evil things that you could.

And I said after she had done all these things, Turn you unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

And I saw, when for all the causes for which backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned unto me with her whole heart, but in pretense, says the LORD.

Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, you backsliding Israel, says the LORD; and I will not cause my anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, says the LORD, and I will not keep anger forever.

Turn, O backsliding children, says the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil hearts.

Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto you; for you are the LORD our God.

If you will return, O Israel, says the LORD, return unto me: and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight, then shall you not be moved.

Set up the standard toward Zion: take refuge, delay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

For this gird yourselves with sackcloth, lament and wail: for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned back from us.

Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them.

Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is plundered: suddenly are my tents plundered, and my curtains in a moment.

I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved to and fro.

I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.

I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.

For thus has the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not relent, neither will I turn back from it.

The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell in it.

And when you are plundered, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with crimson, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain shall you make yourself fair; your lovers will despise you, they will seek your life.

Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its broad places, if you can find a man, if there is any that executes justice, that seeks the truth; and I will pardon it.

I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the law of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts, Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from afar, O house of Israel, says the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you know not, neither understand what they say.

Their quiver is as an open sepulcher, they are all mighty men.

Nevertheless in those days, says the LORD, I will not make a full end with you.

And it shall come to pass, when you shall say, Why does the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shall you answer them, Like you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

Fear you not me? says the LORD: will you not tremble at my presence, who has placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though its waves toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their own power; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end?

Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.

And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I punish them they shall be cast down, says the LORD.

Thus says the LORD, Stand you in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it.

Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.

Therefore thus says the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbor and his friend shall perish.

They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are bronze and iron; they are all corrupters.

Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever.

Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom you know not;

And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

And now, because you have done all these works, says the LORD, and I spoke unto you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not; and I called you, but you answered not;

Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, in which you trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole descendants of Ephraim.

Therefore pray not for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear you.

But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk you in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.

Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:

Therefore you shall speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to you: you shall also call unto them; but they will not answer you.

Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.

And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshiped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for refuse upon the face of the earth.

And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the rest of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places where I have driven them, says the LORD of hosts.

Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for everyone from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest everyone deals falsely.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their punishment they shall be cast down, says the LORD.

I will surely consume them, says the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell in it.

For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, says the LORD.

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place for wayfaring men; that I might leave my people and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

Take you heed everyone of his neighbor, and trust you not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders.

And they will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.

Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will refine them, and test them; for how shall I deal with the daughter of my people?

For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beasts are fled; they are gone.

And I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, and a den of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.

Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water poisonous to drink.

I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.

Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will punish all them who are circumcised with the uncircumcised;

Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the farthest corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

Who would not fear you, O King of nations? for to you is it due: since among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto you.

Silver beaten into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman, and of the hands of the goldsmith: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of skillful men.

The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.

For thus says the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may find it so.

My tent is plundered, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent anymore, and to set up my curtains.

For the shepherds have become senseless, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.

Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall you be my people, and I will be your God:

Then the LORD said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear you the words of this covenant, and do them.

Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked everyone in the imagination of his evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not.

Therefore thus says the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.

Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

Therefore pray not you for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.

Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine: